Included in the kit are the ginger bread pieces, a bag of icing (which the recipient can just cut the tip of the baggy and use as an icing bag as well), and of course the best part a bag full of candy.

We have all been coping with the unbearable sadness over what happened last week at Sandy Hook Elementary school.

We were in Florida last week so I missed the endless funerals and news coverage. Which would have been too unbearable to watch anyways.

But finding small ways to help has made me feel not so sad.

The Sandy Hook PTA has asked for help creating a Winter Wonderland for the students when they return to their new school. Snowflakes must arrive by January 12, 2012. And can be sent to Connecticut PTSA, 60 Connolly Parkway, Building 12, Suite 103, Hamden, CT 06514.

Easy, I can do that.

I made both Star Wars Snowflakes and ballerina snowflakes.

The ballerina snowflakes template can be found here. These snowflakes are so simple even your kids can help you make them.

I added a little heart onto each ballerina. Let’s be sure these kids know there is love out there for them.

Now the Star Wars snowflakes were a bit more complicated. The site I found the patterns on says that you can cut them by hand. But that seems a bit crazy. So I used my Silhouette Cameo instead. I used the trace function on the Silhouette to make them. So easy.

I couldn’t figure out how to post the silhouette files on here, but if you’re looking for them just leave a comment and I’ll email them to you.

I hope these snowflakes can make the kids first day of school a little bit easier.

As the mother of boys I think there will be a lot of things I never thought I would do.

When I showed my oldest these Star Wars snowflakes by Anthony Herrera Designs he thought it was the only Christmas decorations we would EVER need.

As a non-Star Wars fan myself, I actually have to admit these are pretty cool.

I considered cutting these by hand like the instructions say. But thought that was slightly insane. Instead I used that trace feature on my Silhouette Cameo.

It was so easy. I just downloaded the image of the snowflake, hit trace and then cut. The Silhouette cut it out perfectly. The hardest part was removing the paper from the sticky cutting mat without tearing the delicate paper snowflake.

But if you want to cut these by hand you can download the patterns here. May the force be with you.

Despite a few rips I think they still turned out great.

Wasn’t sure how we would hang them, so we went on a stick hunt. Which quickly turned into a stick fight. That should have been expected.

I took the bark off the stick and put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 C. Just to get all the bugs out. And yes I know my oven needs to be cleaned. But what’s the point when I use it as a bug exterminator.

The boys went to work painting the stick.

I used a scrap piece of fabric as the hanger. Simple & free.

If you’re using your Silhouette to make these and have any questions please feel free to ask. I didn’t do a detailed tutorial because I really didn’t thing it would work.

And if you do these by hand I would love to hear how it went. You crazy crafty people.